February 25, 2007

Oscars 2007: That August Day Has Finally Arrived !!!

After all the prognosticating, more than a month after the nominees were announced, Oscar Sunday is upon us, and all is right with the world.

The Gurus o' Gold: the 14 critics predict a Best Picture win for The Departed. Kris Tapley, at In Contention, is calling for Letters From Iwo Jima to pick up the Best Picture prize, while Tom O' Neill at the L.A. Times' Gold Derby predicts a sweep for The Departed (will win in every category it's nominated); Sasha Stone, over at Oscar Watch, is right in step with O'Neill.

USA Today's Claudia Puig, the ever thoughtful Jeffrey Wells, the independent-minded James Berardinelli, The Hollywood Reporter's Anne Thompson, and a host of others also offer their two cents worth.

VanRamblings? Where do we come in? Who, and what, do we feel will win?

Well, even though we're feeling a little verklempt, not to mention a tad burnt out about this whole Oscar prediction thing, fair's fair, so ...

Best Picture: Babel. Why Babel? Very few have seen Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima. Little Miss Sunshine is too slight (and won last night at the Independent Spirit Awards). The Departed is far from Martin Scorsese's best. And, The Queen is a warmed-over BBC production.

As to the remaining 'big' awards: Helen Mirren is a lock for Best Actress (The Queen). Forest Whitaker is a lock for Best Actor (The Last King of Scotland). Martin Scorsese is a lock for Best Director. Jennifer Hudson is a lock for Best Supporting Actress (Dreamgirls).

The only toss-up: will Eddie Murphy take home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, or will Alan Arkin triumph?

And, oh yeah, Best Foreign Film oughta go to The Lives of Others.

We'll know soon. Full results will be published below, later tonight.

Update: Perhaps not the most boring Academy Awards in memory (Ellen DeGeneres was fine, if a little unexciting ... even if the programme did run long), there were few, if any surprises at the 79th annual Academy Awards.

Nikki Finke snarkily live-blogged the event, as did Greg Kirschling at Entertainment Weekly and L.A.'s Defamer.com.

The New York Times has already published their wrap-up of the ceremony, as has the L.A. Times. Tom Shales at the Washington Post found the ceremony to be "a bore and horror," while Variety's Brian Lowry writes the ceremony was "unspectacular bordering on dull."

So, who won and are out partying while you're getting ready for bed?

Just as we reported earlier in the day, as critics predicted The Departed won in every category it was nominated (save Mark Wahlberg for Best Supporting Actor), including Best Picture, Best Director, Adapted Screenplay and Film Editing. Forest Whitaker (Best Actor), Helen Mirren (Best Actress) and Jennifer Hudson (Best Supporting Actress) were, as it proved, 'locks' indeed, while Alan Arkin proved more popular than Eddie Murphy, taking home his Best Supporting Actor Oscar. And, of course, as we predicted above, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others picked up Best Foreign Film, which oughta improve its box office.

You were thrilled, you were excited, and now it's all over til next year.

C'mon back later in the week, when VanRamblings will set about to publish the first of two lists on films to be released in 2007 that are likely to gain Oscar recognition come next February 24, 2008.

   

February 19, 2007

2007 Academy Awards: One Week To Go (and more reviews)

We're less than one week away til the big day, and VanRamblings is back to weigh in on four more Oscar contenders.

Of course, Little Children remains our favourite film of 2006 (followed by The Good Shepherd, Babel, The Lives of Others and Letters From Iwo Jima ... pretty much in that order), but we'll leave to another day the posting of our Top 10 Films of 2006 list.

First up, the film that will garner Martin Scorsese that Best Director Oscar statuette he's long sought. Too bad, though, that The Departed is a rather humdrum adaptation of the Hong Kong crime flick Infernal Affairs, a high body count movie where sterling performances (from Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg) become the focus over compelling narrative. The Departed isn't a bad film; rather, it's just not up to the standards of Raging Bull, Casino and Bringing Out the Dead.

The pick o' the bunch this week, Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima is everything that Flags of Our Fathers was not: passionate, strikingly original, involving, masterful and resignedly melancholy. How is it possible that anyone would come away from this film and not see the absolute futility of war? Certainly deserving of a Best Picture nod, Letters From Iwo Jima is eloquent, powerful, humanizing filmmaking, created by a mature filmmaker working at his peak.

Set in the dying days of the Spanish Civil War, when Franco had long been in control of the reigns of government, Guillermo del Toro's fabulist fairytale, Pan's Labyrinth, brilliantly melds the realms of fairy tale and brutal 20th-century history as it relates the trauma of war through the haunted eyes of a lonely 10-year-old girl. Often terrifying and graphically violent in its depiction of evil, Pan's Labyrinth is decidedly not children's fare, but del Toro does create a richly imagined world, and magnificent film fare.

Volver may not be one of Pedro Almodóvar's more compelling nor inventive films but for all that, given the heavier fare reviewed in today's posting, Volver comes across as generally involving, sporadically humorous, well-acted and warmly personal cinema. Relating the relatively slight story of a family who take over a recently closed restaurant and in the process discover much about themselves, Penélope Cruz is very much the star here, her performance radiantly funny, her character immensely likeable.

Well, that's it for now. See you later in the week for our Oscar post.

   

February 11, 2007

As The 2007 Oscar Ceremony Draws Nigh

With the 79th annual Academy Awards only two weeks away (that would be Sunday, February 25th, and we're making preparations, even as you read this), VanRamblings is attempting to publish a comprehensive set of reviews of the films up for Oscar consideration, as we began here and here.

At some point in the week prior to the Oscar ceremony, VanRamblings will publish our predictions of those who are likely to emerge as winners at the 2007 ceremony at the Kodak Theatre, along with a set of links and much speculation by other observers who spend, as VanRamblings does, far too much time on something quite so inconsequential as Tinseltown nonsense.

But still ...

In this posting, we take a look at four more Oscar contenders ...

With Leonardo DiCaprio up for Best Actor, Blood Diamond has deservedly won greater prominence in the Oscar sweepstakes, and at the box office, than otherwise might have been the case. Although, initially, the film has about it a whiff of 'good for you' advocacy filmmaking, by movie's end this look at the bloody underbelly of the international diamond trade emerges as an entirely involving, wonderfully acted and thoughtful history lesson, even if it's not quite up to the standards of The Constant Gardener.

The pick 'o the bunch is Robert DeNiro's The Good Shepherd, one of the most literate and engaging films of 2006. Woefully overlooked by the Academy (particularly Matt Damon, for Best Actor), this remarkable study of the corrosive effects of fear and power focuses on the life of a top CIA officer, from the inception of the CIA in WWII through the Bay of Pigs disaster in 1961. Even at nearly three hours, this tour-de-force film involves from beginning to end.

If there was any justice in the world (or within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), The Lives of Others (also championed by The New York Times' A. O. Scott) would walk away with the Best Foreign Film award. Offering an unflinching look at East Germany under the Communists in the decade prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, this is supremely intelligent, historical filmmaking at its very best. Due to open in Vancouver this coming week, you'll want to rush right out to see it as soon as it hits town.

A British kitchen-sink drama — except this time it's set at Buckingham Palace and those standing around in the kitchen are Queen Elizabeth, Princes Philip and Charles, and Prime Minister Tony Blair — we would like to be excited about The Queen (because it's up for Best Picture, and Helen Mirren is a lock for Best Actress), but we can't muster much enthusiasm. The movie seems little more involving than a TV drama, but Best Picture? We think not.

C'mon back early next week for four more reviews (including Letters From Iwo Jima), and later that same week for our all-encompassing Oscar post. You'll be glad you did (we think ...).

   

February 5, 2007

Oscars 2006: Another Four Oscar Contenders Reviewed

We're back with 4 more reviews of films that are up for Oscar consideration, a couple of which are on DVD, so you can check 'em out at home.

First up, Children of Men, a fine, stark yet flawed dystopian thriller that, while sporting some dazzling filmmaking hardly involves with its story about a world plagued by infertility and on the verge of collapse. Clive Owen's performance is actorly in a manner that fails to engage, while Julianne Moore is in the picture for such a short while it's a wonder that her name even made it into the credits. Lots of critics liked this film, but VanRamblings is not among those that found it "gritty, disturbing, solemn or haunting."

Half Nelson, on the other hand, now here's a slice of life drama that is wholly absorbing despite its low budget and generally lacklustre production values. Ryan Gosling's performance as a drug-addicted inner-city school teacher is human scale, watchable and near mesmerizing (and very much deserving of an Oscar), while 13-year-old newcomer Shareeka Epps gives as good as she gets. Absolutely one of the best films of 2006 — and now on DVD for rental.

Now, you'd think that The Last King of Scotland would be heavy fare and a slog to get through, but you'd be wrong. Forest Whitaker's larger than life performance as African dictator, Idi Amin — charismatic, trained by the British, and home to create chaos in Uganda during his eight-year reign — may be menacing, but he's also horrifically engaging and possessed of a wry sense of humour. Prediction: Whitaker will win Best Actor for his performance.

Little Miss Sunshine can garner all the accolades it wants, but you're not gonna find unadulterated praise for this rather pedestrian film in this corner. A too cute and rather mundane road movie chock full of odd "characters" rather than relatable people, there's a cleverness, no doubt, in this Oscar nominated picture, but when it comes to films emerging from January's Sundance Film Festival, give me a Quinceañera any day of the week. Strained, foul-mouthed and verging on the grotesque, from VanRamblings' standpoint Little Miss Sunshine is much ado about not very much. Don't say you haven't been warned.

   

February 3, 2007

And The 79th Annual Oscar Ceremony Doth Approach

As the 79th annual Academy Awards ceremony approaches (Sunday, February 25th), VanRamblings will set about to offer you our take on the various 2006 films up for Oscar consideration.

First up, there's Babel, the pick o' the bunch here, a powerful, melancholy, wholly transcendent film and, often, very difficult film to watch. Just when the conditions of a characters' life becomes almost too unbearable to endure, the narrative switches — to the Moroccan desert, Los Angeles, Tijuana or Tokyo — to another one of the four interwoven stories. Heartbreaking, humane and devastatingly brilliant, Babel is the odds on favourite for Best Picture.

Absolutely one of the best films to come out of Hollywood in 2006, who knows why the members of the Academy slighted Dreamgirls? Conjecture runs from the supposition that producer David Geffen is hated in Hollywood, to allegations of racism and homophobia, but whatever the politics behind the snub, Dreamgirls remains one of the most important films of 2006, an entertaining and always involving celebration of the movie musical at its very best.

Delicious. Brilliantly adapted by playwright Patrick Marber from Zoë Heller's acclaimed novel, Notes on a Scandal is elegant, pitch-black filmmaking at its very best, with a marvelous and stunningly gorgeous Cate Blanchett, and a scarily effective, misanthropic and unrelenting Dame Judi Dench, at its centre. Gothic, gripping filmmaking of the first order (à la Fatal Attraction, but with a great deal more wit), Notes on a Scandal offers a refreshingly literate battle royale involving colleagues undone by sexual desire, and another cineplex must-see Oscar contender.

Pedestrian, conventional filmmaking, The Pursuit of Happyness is a modest Tinseltown success at best, a quasi-inspirational, feel-good fairy tale that holds the accumulation of material wealth as the raison d'être of life. At least it's not sappy, though. We've all been through tough times, but this film is so unrelentingly bleak at times it verges on unreality. If a slick and gleaming pull yourself up by your own bootstraps flick is your cup o' tea, then this is likely the film for you.

   

November 14, 2006

The Best: Oscar Contenders in the 2006 Holiday Movie Season

(Click on the 'picture' above for a larger, more expansive version of the chart)

Yes, it's that salutary time of year again, when the Hollywood floodgates open and movie lovers across the globe get to bathe themselves in the kind of serious, adult-minded movie fare that spells Oscar.

Over the course of the next six weeks, Tinseltown will release more than four dozen prestige pics, most of which will vie for Oscar attention. Of course, only five will be honoured with one of those cherished Best Picture nominations, but there's always Best Actress / Supporting Actress, Best Actor / Supporting Actor, and Best Director to consider. In Hollywood, everyone deserving comes away with something, even if it's just the Oscar nod that places a studio pic in contention, a prize itself of sorts.

Having taken a look at the insider websites and blogs which focus on the upcoming Oscar race — including Oscarwatch, The Gurus o' Gold (from MovieCityNews), the Oscar Igloo, Gold Derby (from the Los Angeles Times), In Contention, and Jeffrey Wells' Oscar Balloon, among others — VanRamblings is confident that the chart above pretty much covers the main contenders for 2006 — although, we'll admit that we're partial to Little Children, which we consider to be the best American film of the year, and were probably a bit kinder to the film than is the case with some critics.

All said, though, there are actors and actresses, other than those listed above, who may garner Oscar recognition, this upcoming February 25th.
In the Best Supporting Actress category, for instance, buzz continues to build for Vanessa Redgrave (Venus), Anika Noui Rose (Dreamgirls), Juliette Binoche (Breaking and Entering), Emma Thompson (Stranger Than Fiction), Gillian Anderson (The Last King of Scotland), Sandra Bullock (Infamous), Salma Hayek (Lonely Hearts), Demi Moore (Bobby), and Ellen Burstyn (The Fountain). Any one of these fine actresses could displace one of the Oscar contenders currently listed in the top five for this category.

In the Best Supporting Actor category, Ewan McGregor could get a nomination for Miss Potter, as could Michael Pena for World Trade Center. James McEvoy (The Last King Of Scotland), Freddy Rodriguez (Bobby), James Cromwell (The Queen), Michael Caine (Children of Men), and Albert Finney (A Good Year) are also receiving consideration.

In the Best Actor and Actress categories, the first four contenders would seem to be a lock, with fifth position up for grabs among the remaining eight contenders in each category.

Whatever the case, there are a good many films for you to see this upcoming holiday movie season.

Of those currently in release, VanRamblings highly recommends: Babel, a moving and often difficult to watch parable of disconnection and melancholy, but still one of the best American films of the year; The Last King of Scotland, a riveting portrait of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, with an outstanding performance by Forest Whitaker in the lead role; Todd Field's Little Children, the best American film of 2006, now playing exclusively at Tinseltown, just off Yaletown; Philip Noyce's Catch A Fire (a very good film, even if no one is bothering to attend screenings of one of the better films of the year); Flags of Our Fathers, a not entirely successful film for director Clint Eastwood, but very well made nonetheless; and, the well-reviewed and unexpected late comer to the Oscar table, Casino Royale, a re-inventing of the Bond saga, gritty, taciturn and surprisingly often, poignant.

We're not quite as enthused about Martin Scorsese's The Departed, which VanRamblings believes is far from the director's best work. Nor are we particularly excited about The Queen, which is workmanlike, but hardly thrilling, revelatory or moving in any meaningful way. As for Little Miss Sunshine, VanRamblings feels this indie film is much ado about not very much (we much preferred the Sundance winner, Quinceañera).

We eagerly await what is bound to be an overwhelmingly positive reception for the odds-on-favourite for a Best Picture Oscar, Dreamgirls (opening Christmas Day in Vancouver), the feel-good family film of the holiday season, with a breakout performance from newcomer Jennifer Hudson. VanRamblings loved this film when we saw it at an early media screening.

Other films to keep an eye out for include Robert DeNiro's sophomore film behind the camera, The Good Shepherd; Steven Soderbergh's, The Good German; Notes On A Scandal, starring probable Oscar nominees, Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett; and Miss Potter, the story of Beatrix Potter, the author of the beloved and best-selling children's book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", with possible Oscar nominee Renée Zelwegger in the title role.

Then, there's the Tony award-winning, The History Boys; probable Oscar nominee Leonardo diCaprio, in Blood Diamond; The Pursuit of Happyness (set for release on December 15th), starring Will Smith (and his young son) in what should prove to be a box-office smash over the Christmas season; Peter O'Toole in Venus; Pedro Almodóvar's Volver; Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth; Sienna Miller in Factory Girl, the story of Andy Warhol protégé Edie Sedgwick; and, in the indie category, the Sundance film, Come Early Morning, among other worthy film fare to look forward to.

There's lots to see. For video previews of all the films listed in this posting, surf on over to Apple's Quicktime trailers site, or go to YouTube.

Chances are, we'll be seeing you at the movies this holiday season.

   

April 10, 2006

The Last Picture Show: Why Cinemas Will Die

by Nora Ephron
reprinted from the April 7th New York Times

We went to the movies the other night. We live in New York City, where it costs $10.75 to see a movie, which doesn't include the $1.50 surcharge for buying the tickets ahead of time online. I love buying tickets ahead of time online. One of the miracles of modern life, as far as I'm concerned, is that moment when you enter a movie theater, stick your credit card into a machine and it spits the exact tickets you ordered straight out at you. Every time it happens, I just want to say, I don't believe it! This is great!!

On the other hand, it turns out that there's a new technological advance in the buying-tickets-ahead-of-time department that takes all the fun out of it: you can now print out your confirmation at home, skip the machine and go straight to the ticket taker. The ticket taker then scans your printout and prints the tickets right at the entrance to the theater thus holding up all the people behind you in the ticket line, eliminating the one miraculous moment you used to be able to count on when going to see a movie.

But the other night, as it turned out, we didn't have to give our printout to the ticket taker, because when we walked into the theater, there was no ticket taker. The entrance to the theater was empty of personnel. The other customers just walked right in without giving their tickets to anyone, and we did too.

We trooped two flights downstairs to Theater 7, expecting to bump into a ticket taker on our way to the theater, but we never did. We had also hoped to buy something to eat, but the lower-level refreshment counter was closed and the popcorn was just sitting there, getting stale.

I should probably say at this point that the theater we went to was the Loews Orpheum 7, at 86th Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan. I should probably also say that the Loews Orpheum 7 is owned by AMC, but it used to be owned by Loews Cineplex Entertainment Corporation, and when it was, I was on the company's board.

This was a sad experience in my life because I had modestly hoped, in my role as a board member, to do something about the unbelievably low quality of the food sold in movie theaters. As it turned out, no one at Loews cared about what I thought about the food sold in theaters.

So I dutifully attended the board meetings and was subjected to a series of PowerPoint presentations that were meant to validate the company's policy of building costly, large cineplexes, most of them conveniently situated right across the street from other costly, large cineplexes being built by rival theater companies.

One day, about two years into my tenure, I was staying in Los Angeles, in a hotel, and I attended a Loews board meeting by telephone; it was so boring that I decided to leave for a while and get a manicure downstairs.

When I got back to my room, only 20 minutes later, everyone was screaming at one another on the telephone. I didn't want to admit I had left the room — and by the way, no one had even noticed — so I listened for a while and realized that while I'd been out having my nails done, the company had gone bankrupt.

This was a shock to me and to everyone else on the board. I never did find out why the news hadn't been mentioned earlier in the board meeting, but that of course was one of the reasons everyone was screaming at one another. I mean, there were people on the board whose companies owned shares in Loews who had just found out that they'd lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of a bankruptcy no one had even had the courtesy to warn them about. It wasn't even on the agenda!

A few months later some investors from Canada and California bought Loews at a bargain basement price. Two years later, AMC Entertainment took over, and as far as I can tell it has done nothing whatsoever to improve the food sold at the refreshment counter or anything else.

Anyway, the other night. We passed the shuttered refreshment counter, went into the theater and sat down. The ads were already playing. There were quite a few of them, including a diet cola ad involving trucks and motorcycles that was so in love with itself that it actually recommended going to a special Web site that explained how the ad had been made.

Continue reading "The Last Picture Show: Why Cinemas Will Die"

   

January 10, 2006

Year End Review, Part 5: VanRamblings' Top 10 Films of 2005

Although a little late in the posting, now that VanRamblings has seen most of the films likely up for Oscar contention, we are able to post our list of what we consider to be the Top 10 Films of 2005.

For the most part, 2005 was business as usual in Hollywood, with the exception, of course, that business was down a whopping 5% (we're talking hundreds of millions of dollars here), and admissions were down 7% over 2004.

In fact, 2005 produced the worst box office performance since 1985.

Still and all, there were movies to see during the year, many of which are now on video (some movies came and went in one week, while others never even made it to our shores, and more’s the pity in that department). From Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck and Walk the Line to Cinderella Man, Hustle and Flow and Crash there was much that was good that could be seen on the big screen throughout the year.

Overall, declining box office notwithstanding, 2005 was a pretty darn fine year for those of us who love movies. If 2006 exhibits a fraction of the variety and skill represented in the more than 500 films released worldwide in 2005, we’re in for a heady year.

Top 10 Films of 2005

1. The Constant Gardener: Far and away the best film of the year, this provocative and assured thriller-romance provided not only the most alluring love story captured on film last year, this masterwork of suspense and political intrigue proved to be, as well, the most serious, the smartest and most gorgeously filmed piece of cinematic storytelling to reach the local multiplex in 2005.

2. Brokeback Mountain: Poignant, tender, troubling, beautiful, poetic, mournful and mythic, at once rich and spare, gorgeously filmed and elegiac, it is little wonder Brokeback Mountain is the odds on favourite to win Best Picture at the Oscars come Sunday, March 5th. You’ve read about it. If you haven’t seen it: do. Here’s betting it picks up a slew of Oscar nominations on January 31st.

3. Walk The Line: The best straightforward Hollywood entertainment of 2005, in Walk The Line the music soars, the lambent cinematography of the rural backroads of the southern United States evokes a simpler time and tragedy barely held at bay, and Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon do such a bang up job of portraying Johnny Cash and June Carter, it's little wonder that both are in line for Oscar nods. If you’re gonna see one picture on the big screen this month, this one oughta be it.

4. Me, You and Everyone We Know: Quirky doesn’t begin to do justice to what surely is the oddest film among VanRamblings Top 10 films of 2005, and yet this film — by turns comic and tender, tragic and absurd — gives off what is surely one of the greatest of moviegoing pleasures — the sense of an artist seeing the world from some private vantage that is as original as it is truthful. On DVD, this was the most auspicious début of 2005.

5. Capote: Winner of the National Society of Film Critics Award, Capote boasts the best performance by an actor in film in 2005, and finally gives Philip Seymour Hoffman his due as one of America’s finest actors for the screen. Gripping, transformative, unsettling — with a mesmerizing performance by Hoffman at its centre — Capote is not to be missed. Now playing at Tinseltown, in Vancouver.

6. Crash: Number one on Roger Ebert’s Top 10 of 2005, Crash is not only one of the best Hollywood movies ever about race, it is an exhilarating, contentious, frank and, at times, tragic exploration of the racial divide in America today. And, yet, director Paul Haggis leaves room for hope. Sure to garner Oscar consideration, as it has a whack of critics’ awards, Crash is available now on DVD.

7. King Kong: As Peter Travers wrote in his review in Rolling Stone, King Kong is “the jaw-dropping, eye-popping, heart-stopping movie epic we’ve been waiting for all year.” Offering magnificent entertainment, and all at once wondrous, sophisticated, smart and funny, with a great emotional, heart-tugging core, this is why we (sometimes) love Hollywood films: because they’re larger than life and can be downright astonishing at times.

8. Look At Me: The first great film of 2005, this marvelous and uncommonly observant French drama offers a brilliant, blistering account of a literary Parisian family who are not at all what they appear to be on the surface. Like the baroque chorales in the film, Look at Me builds to a resonant climax that will reverberate long after you take your eyes from the screen. Available on DVD.

9. Downfall: You’ll be hearing a great deal more about the film’s director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, very soon. And little wonder why. This riveting re-creation of three world-changing collapses: those of the Nazi party, of militarized Germany as a whole, and of the Führer who guided them into self-destructive ruin was one of the most powerful films of 2005. Another must rental.

10. Munich: This was the second-to-last film we saw before compiling our Top 10 list, and we're not sure if we've quite come to terms with it yet. Winner of Entertainment Weekly’s Best Film of 2005 award, Munich probably deserves to be higher on the list. Sure, it may be a superbly taut and well-made thriller, but it is the haunting ethical and personal issues which the film explores that stay with you long after the film has ended.

Of course, there are a great many more films that were released in 2005 that are deserving of consideration, both as potential films for you to see at your local multiplex or art house cinema, or to rent on DVD. We loved far more than the 10 films listed above (although we believe our Top 10 encapsulates what we see as most praiseworthy in film in 2005).

By rights, Ballet Russes — which is opening for a week’s run at the new VanCity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Festival Centre on January 20th — should have made our Top 10 list, and did for the longest time. But only a handful of us saw it last October. As our favourite film at the 2005 Vancouver International Film Festival, this one is a must-see.

Good Night, and Good Luck just missed our Top 10, as did David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, both of which are recommendable.

VanRamblings hasn’t seen Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, about which we hear many good things, but it’s coming to The Hollywood Theatre next month, and we’ll catch it then (we no longer live our life inside a darkened theatre, seeking a sense of connection; we actually have a life now ... occasionally ... thus we missed this, and other films, in first run).

Matchpoint hasn’t arrived, and we can’t wait (but we won’t see it at one of Leonard Schein’s cinemas, because we’re boycotting him).

We saw both Pride and Prejudice and Rent over the holiday season, and loved them both (we cried our eyes out at the screenings ... always a good thing when attending the cinema, we believe). By rights, each could have made the Top 10 list, but we wimped out and went for the more serious stuff (save, King Kong, I suppose ... although King Kong was great), as we did with a number of other ‘chick flicks’ that are now available on DVD.

On the weekend, VanRamblings will post a list of highly recommendable films released in 2005 now available for sale or rental on video and DVD.

   

December 14, 2005

Year-End Film Critic Awards Predict Upcoming Oscar Nominations

After a dearth of good movies all year long, the pre-Oscar Christmas season rolls around and all of a sudden we’re inundated with Oscar-worthy fare. And it was ever thus.

From Brokeback Mountain to Capote, from King Kong to A History of Violence, there are enough great films playing at multiplexes across North America to sate even the most demanding of moviegoers. For the true movie lover, this time of year is nothing less than cinematic nirvana.

At the moment, the leading contender for Best Picture come Oscar time, Sunday March 5th, would be Brokeback Mountain, director Ang Lee’s epic return to form. Winner of Best Picture nods by both the prestigious New York and Los Angeles Film Critics Associations (not to mention, similar status conferred by the Boston and San Francisco Film Critics), and roping in 7 Golden Globe nominations on Tuesday — including Best Dramatic Picture and Best Actor honours for Heath Ledger and Best Director for Ang Lee — Brokeback Mountain is the early film to beat, and one of the must-see films of the holiday season. Opening this week at The Park Theatre, Brokeback Mountain will go into wide release at Christmas time.

Next up for Oscar consideration: Peter Jackson’s King Kong, a loving remake of the 1933 Faye Wray original, an epic special effects film that tugs at the heart while offering pulse-quickening entertainment. An almost perfect amalgam of Titanic and Raiders of the Lost Ark, King Kong will emerge the box office champion this Christmas season, which is fitting since it is first-rate entertainment for the whole family.

When it comes to niche films, Capote is the must-see film of the holiday season, if only for Philip Seymour Hoffman’s transforming performance as the title character. Both of George Clooney’s low-budget and well-received entries — Good Night, and Good Luck, and Syriana — continue to do well at the box office, and will garner Oscar support come Tuesday January 31st, the day the Oscar nominations are announced.

VanRamblings’ favourite film this year is Fernando Mereilles’ The Constant Gardener, a thriller, a moving love story and an indictment of the pharmaceutical industry. Now that Steven Spielberg’s prestige Christmas pic, Munich, has been savaged by many of the leading critics — along with an overall less than enthusiastic reception for Memoirs of a Geisha, Terrence Malick’s The New World, and the Weinstein brothers’ presentation of Mrs. Henderson Presents — The Constant Gardener would seem back in serious contention for an Oscar nod, perhaps to emerge as this year’s sleeper Best Picture.

The Johnny Cash bio, Walk The Line, would appear guaranteed to emerge as one of the five Oscar Best Picture nominations — with Best Actor and Best Actress nods assured for Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence is almost every critics’ second pick for Best Picture, with William Hurt and Maria Bello getting the nod for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress from the New York film critics fraternity.

Other possible contenders for Best Picture consideration, and worthwhile fare to catch the next time you visit your local multiplex or favourite art house cinema: Woody Allen’s latest flick, Matchpoint; Transamerica, starring Felicity Huffman, sure to be nominated in the Best Actress category; and Tommy Lee Jones’ The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, opening soon. Pride and Prejudice may have a shot at Best Picture, as well.

So far, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe hasn't been seen on the critics Best Picture radar, but given its potential for box office gold and its probable status as counterpoint to the “gay cowboy epic” that is garnering so much attention, Hollywood may yet find a place for Narnia come Oscar time.

As to the remaining movie fare available this holiday season — Fun With Dick and Jane, Rumor Has It, The Producers (now seemingly out of Best Picture contention), Rent, The Ringer, The Family Stone (reportedly just awful), Cheaper By The Dozen 2, and Casanova — there’ll be enough cinema available this Christmas season to suit almost every taste.

You’ll want to savour this Christmas season’s multiplex offerings, in particular, because VanRamblings is predicting the slow, inexorable decline of the theatre exhibition business, as the major film studios move to “day and date” — making their films available to you for viewing with your home theatre setup on the same day the new blockbuster opens at your local multiplex. The move to home theatre as the primary viewing model is inevitable, and will in all likelihood arrive (much) sooner than later.

   

February 25, 2005

And The Academy Awards Should Go To ...

With the 77th annual Academy Awards nearing, and not having posted regularly for almost three months now (heck, I’ve been busy), perhaps now is as good a time as any to post VanRamblings’ very own Academy Awards.

In alphabetical order, VanRamblings’ five Best Pictures nominees for 2004 demand your attention, touch the heart, and seek to cause a fundamental shift in how you see the role of film in contemporary culture ...

• Closer: One of the best written, most well-acted and best directed films of 2004. If you don’t fall in love with Natalie Portman, appreciate the music of Patrick Marber’s script and Mike Nichols’ peerless cinematic composition of this tour-de-force work, TV may be right up your alley as the medium of choice.

• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: With tour-de-force performances from Jim Carrey (yes, Jim Carrey) and the always exquisite Kate Winslet, and a knock it out of the ballpark script by Charlie Kaufman (not to mention, outstanding direction by Michel Gondry), it’s nothing short of criminal that Sunshine will not be one of the Best Picture contenders on Sunday night.

• Man on Fire: Simply because there was no more honest relationship captured onscreen in 2004 than that which exists within this film between Dakota Fanning and Denzel Washington.

• Metallica - Some Kind of Monster: Riveting and endlessly fascinating, Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky’s documentary look at America’s pre-eminent heavy metal group ranks as one of the must-see films of 2004.

• Million Dollar Baby: Lean, spare and unlike any other Hollywood film released in 2004, this is the movie that should win the Best Picture Oscar, simply because it’s the only worthy contender among the nominated films.

   

August 22, 2004

Legends of The Fall: Let The Oscar Race Begin

The summer box office season is now officially over.

With a handful of mediocre movies in release the past couple of weeks — and, overall, a perfectly dreadful summer movie season — all that die-hard movie lovers can do is await the end of Hollywood’s silly season in anticipation of the start of autumn’s rollout of potential Oscar contenders.

If you’re in the mood for dramatized biographies, the coming autumn movie season has a bumper crop, covering a wide range of subjects. Singers Bobby Darin and Ray Charles, Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, sex expert Alfred Kinsey, “Peter Pan’s” author J.M. Barrie, mogul Howard Hughes and world conqueror Alexander the Great have their own biopics. Want to go the other way? There’s also a bumper crop of fantasies.

Jack Mathews, in today’s New York Daily News, provides a full autumn season movie guide, as he writes about films ranging from Reese Witherspoon’s Vanity Fair (opening Sept. 1), surefire Oscar contender Jamie Foxx in Ray, director Oliver Stone’s much anticipated Alexander, right through to the Christmas Day opening of The Phantom of the Opera.

Beyond the mainstream fare, as Elizabeth Weitman writes, there’s a raft of star-driven independent and foreign import films (have a look at The Motorcycle Diaries) that will not only dominate the art-house lineup this fall season, but will likely find favour with the Academy come Oscar time.

For the documentary lover, the late summer and fall promises a flurry of political documentaries, ranging from Born into Brothels, set in Calcutta’s red-light district and featuring a lively group of children whose mothers are prostitutes, to Bush’s Brain, which sets its sights not on the President’s grey matter but on that of Karl Rove’s, Bush’s uber-advisor.

Families can look forward to some awfully big adventures, from Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, through to Disney’s The Incredibles, Shark Tale from Dreamworks, The Polar Express from Warner Bros., and Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland, from Miramax, among a host of films that will keep children and adults equally entertained.

   

May 31, 2004

'The Day After Tomorrow' Grosses $85 Million More Overseas

As promised yesterday, an update on the U.S. Memorial Day weekend box office. Leonard Klady at MovieCityNews.com (from whence the chart you see above was ‘appropriated’), weighs in with his informative analysis.

John Hamann, at Box Office Prophets offers the folks at 20th Century Fox some degree of succour with this piece of heartening news: “the gross for Day sets a record as the biggest second-place gross ever.”

Meanwhile, the folks at IMDB’s Studio Briefing inform us that the two top films which opened this Memorial Day weekend have established a new box office record, besting last year’s record-breaking grosses of $85.7 million for Jim Carrey’s Bruce Almighty, and $45.6 million for The Matrix Reloaded.

   

May 30, 2004

Shrek 2 Still On Top: Disaster Befalls 'Day' In Plunge To 2nd Place

The Day After Tomorrow ad satire

Perhaps satirical ads, such as the one to the right — not to mention, some pretty savage reviews — hurt the opening box office for this weekend’s summer blockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow, but as far as VanRamblings is concerned, Roland Emmerich’s film has proved to be the most entertaining of the summer blockbusters thus far in 2004, even if the story and dialogue are a tad clichéd.

Seems the movie-going public didn’t agree, though. Now, let’s get real for a moment: taking in a three-day box office total of $70, in its first weekend, can’t be considered small change, but with no spike in the Saturday box office over Friday, salutary box office in the days to come hardly holds out much hope of turning the disaster epic into a summer blockbuster smash. Oh well. Still, Monday is a holiday in the U.S., and final figures will probably spike some.

With The Day After Tomorrow in second, Shrek once again emerged as the box office winner, taking in a gross of $73.1 million, for a record-setting $238,800,000 12-day total. Troy ran a distant third at $11.5 million, while Touchstone’s Kate Hudson-starring domestic comedy, Raising Helen, took in a modest $11.2 million in its opening weekend. The only other newcomer this week, Snoop Dogg’s Soul Plane, crashed on take-off.

When Memorial Day figures are published on Monday — this is a long weekend in the U.S., after all — VanRamblings will update this story, with links to various sites which provide perspective on the weekend box office.

   

May 23, 2004

Shrek 2 Breaks Box Office Record

Although VanRamblings had predicted a couple of days ago that Shrek 2 was on its way to setting a box office record for the month of May, in fact, the Dreamworks release clobbered its way to 3-day weekend record</